An uneasy Florida braces for white supremacist speech and protests

The University of Florida in Gainesville is bracing for a day of protests Thursday when white supremacist Richard Spencer arrives to deliver a speech on his racist views on campus.

The event, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, will be Spencer's first visit to a college campus since he and others participated in the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August.

University and local officials are wary that Thursday's event could also become violent, and they have taken a number of steps to prevent that.

On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for Alachua County, where the university is located, to enable law enforcement agencies to work together more efficiently. He also made a provision for the National Guard to be activated if necessary.

"I find that the threat of a potential emergency is imminent," Scott said in the executive orderdeclaring the state of emergency.

The event puts the university in the middle of an ongoing debate about what constitutes protected speech and the extent of its limits. University of Florida President W. Kent Fuchs denounced Spencer's white supremacist platform as abhorrent in a letter to students but said the school could not stop him from renting the Phillips Center for the event.